


Uncanny

by IttyBittyTeapot (LittleSeedofDarkness)



Series: Canonverse Drabbles [4]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Bittersweet, Established Relationship, Ghost Stories, M/M, Reading Aloud, canonverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-26 13:14:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13236480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleSeedofDarkness/pseuds/IttyBittyTeapot
Summary: Eren has little fear of battle or facing down titans, so why is Levi reading ghost stories aloud to him so damn terrifying?





	Uncanny

**Author's Note:**

> I found an awesome rare words prompts list on tumblr. I've been writing drabbly things with them as writing warm ups, so I'm tossing them up here in a canonverse series.

**Uncanny -** strange or mysterious, especially in an unsettling way

 “Did you hear that?” Eren asked, voice small and strained, his timidity left unguarded in the safety of their room.

 Warm breath blew against Levi’s hair as he paused and turned the page. Eren would prod when he was ready for him to continue. “It’s only the wind,” he said.

 Eren tensed again, and Levi dragged his fingers up the soft leather covering of the book of ghost stories while he waited. Pondering once more why Eren insisted on this ritual. It was something he had requested each Saturday night for the last four months. That Levi read spine-tingling tales of ghosts and monsters to him. Though it was relaxing, intimate, he didn’t revel in Eren’s fear. The way his head darted about, or how any knock or creak of a board caused him to beg Levi for pause. That Eren who faced down titans, jumped bravely into battle in the face unforgiving odds could be so rattled by only a story was perplexing.

 Perhaps it was the soft deep tone Levi read the tales in or the dim lighting of their room, but there wasn’t one evening they read when Eren didn’t jump.

 Levi’s fingers brushed over Eren’s wrist. “Do you want to stop?”

 “No,” Eren said. “Give me a minute. I’m listening.” There was another gust of wind, and Eren’s legs squeezed either side of Levi where he was trapped between them.

 He could feel the pumping of Eren’s heart where his head was settled on his chest. “We could switch places,” he offered.

 They most often sat in this fashion when they read, Levi leaning lazily against Eren with the book tucked up against thighs. It made sense given their difference in size. Levi couldn’t turn the pages as well if he were behind Eren, and Eren did have the tendency to drop the book when he was scared if Levi appointed him the task of holding it.

 “Go ahead.” Eren wrapped strong arms around Levi’s chest, his fingers grasping handfuls of his nightshirt. “I’m sorry, it feels eerie in here tonight,” he whispered.

 “More than usual?”

 Eren nodded against Levi’s shoulder, shuddering as the winter wind rattled the shutters of the window. It reminded Levi of a critter poking its nose into the blanket of white which now covered the ground, frightened away at a sound, scurrying off only to peek its curious head out from under a bush then run out again.

 “Levi…”

 Clearing his throat, Levi continued from where they last left off. Aside from an occasional gasp, Eren said nothing, only held tighter as the tension in the story built. Coming to the description of a nasty specter, Levi could feel Eren’s breathing increase against his ear. Building in speed as the story climbed onward toward its climax, tugging the tension up until the ghost revealed itself.

 “What was that?” Eren asked when their teacups rattled on the bedside table.

 “Brats running down the halls.”

 “I feel like something is watching us.”

 “We should stop.”

 “No,” Eren released his grip on Levi’s shoulders, sliding them down to his biceps.

 Wetting his lips, Levi conceded, reading about the vapors of a monster seeping up from between the floorboards in a bedroom. He felt Eren’s body pull tight as a bowstring while he recounted the being in the tale melding and forming into the corporeal body of a wraith and coming to hover over a sleeping form in the bed.

Eren jolted upright. “I’m sorry!” he said as the book tumbled from Levi’s hands to the mattress.

 The creaks in the building, the thuds, and the howling wind outside could give anyone pause. Worse when it found its way inside, causing the flames in the lamps to flicker and dance.

 “I think we’re done for tonight,” Levi said and closed the book, setting it aside.

 “But we’re at the good part.”

 Heaving a heavy sigh, Levi turned and knelt before Eren. “And you’re about to piss yourself,” he said, lips twitching at the scowl pulling at Eren’s brows and the pouting set of his mouth.

 It wasn’t about ghosts, it never was. Levi suspected it, but read the stories to Eren nonetheless. He saw Eren’s reactions building each week, rising in both intensity and duration. Though teasing the answers out of him might not be as easy as figuring it out in the first place. Eren may not have them himself, to begin with.

 Levi leaned against the pillows and reached one arm above his head. He didn’t need to say anything, didn’t need to pull Eren down.

 “We’re really done then?” Eren asked.

 Levi nodded and met his eyes.

 “Fine,” Eren grumbled and laid his head on Levi’s chest.

 Often, it was all Eren needed. To be held. He didn’t ask for it most of the time, but Levi knew when he required it. He was still sulking, but Levi felt him relax against him, the muscles in his body loosening as he stretched his arm across his chest and began to toy with a lock of his hair.

 “I don’t know why they scare me,” Eren whispered. “It doesn’t make sense.”

 “Hm,” Levi hummed and slid his fingers down Eren’s side. “You don’t let yourself be afraid.”

 Eren turned and looked down at Levi with wide eyes. “You just stopped reading because I was.”

 “I’m not talking about ghost stories.”

 “Oh,” Eren said and tucked his face into the crook of Levi’s neck.

 It was subtle, but Levi knew what Eren was doing. It made sense, he supposed when he thought about it as he held him. Saturday’s were most often free, less work to do, and nothing to awaken for early the next morning. It was a day which lent Eren more time to his thoughts, not that he ever was able to escape them.

 Playing with the neck of Levi’s nightshirt, Eren sighed. “It’s stupid really.”

 “It isn’t.” Levi offered a sympathetic frown.

 From the time he first encountered Eren, Levi had watched a boy turned a man who never had a choice. The closest things to options were the ones Levi gave him. Eren had questioned himself, hated himself for his decisions, lived with regret, and yet he always did what was needed. He was never given time to be afraid, to falter, to freeze, or run away if he wanted to save everyone and everything he cared about. Yet, in the aftermath, in their room, safe with Levi, a simple book had him rattled to pieces.

 “I’m sorry,” Eren whispered.

 “For what?” Levi asked. His fingers moved up to brush against a cheek painted gold in the warm glow of the room, wiping away tears that refused to fall. “For making me stop the story?” Levi asked.

 “That,” Eren said, biting his lip, “and being a pain in your ass.” He moved closer, molding himself tightly against Levi.

 “You’re not a pain in my ass,” Levi said, pulling the blankets over them. “Maybe the stories are some fucked up kind of therapy.”

 Ghost and monsters weren’t as frightening as titans and war, nor was it as petrifying as Eren spending years believing he would die at twenty-three.

 “You think?” Eren asked.

 There was a part of Levi which wished to turn and face Eren, to hold his gaze, though he twisted their fingers together instead. “It’s something you can let yourself be afraid of.” He suspected Eren didn’t mind the cuddling afterward either, not that he would ever deny him.

 “We can read about the vampires next week then?”

 “You could read it to me,” Levi suggested.

 Eren nodded in negation against Levi’s shoulder. “I like hearing your voice.”

 “Okay.” Levi leaned over and turned out the lamp. “Are you going to be able to sleep?” he asked, sinking down into the bed and Eren’s warm embrace.

 “Mhmm.” Eren nodded, pressed a kiss to his Levi’s cheek, and smirked. “As long as you protect me from the wraith.”

 Squeezing his hand around Eren’s, he said, “I’m not sure my weapons will work on him, but I’ll try.”

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is always appreciated. <3


End file.
